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Interview with National Security Leaders for Biden Executive Director Michael Smith; Attempts to Counter GOP Misinformation May Fall on Deaf Ears; Florida Governor Orders Full Reopening. Aired 2- 2:30p ET
Aired September 25, 2020 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:10]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.
The science on the coronavirus pandemic has long been at odds with the president's messaging, and now we are learning that President Trump is losing patience with his own CDC director over this contradiction.
Dr. Robert Redfield is among the experts who have been delivering sober warnings about the state of the pandemic, strongly encouraging vigilance and the use of masks as we're entering the flu season.
According to sources familiar with the president's thinking, Trump is frustrated that Redfield and other top health officials are countering his rosy assessment and he also believes that breakthroughs aren't coming swiftly enough.
But that is just one example of a pattern that we're seeing, where we hear one thing from top officials and experts and then another from the president. Case in point, President Trump's continued baseless attacks on the validity of mail-in ballots.
Trump's own FBI director, Thursday, testifying under oath, told lawmakers there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The White House was quick to fire back. Chief of staff Mark Meadows, immediately attacking Wray's leadership of the FBI.
And then there was this rebuttal to Trump's claims about the Postal Service from his own appointee, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUIS DEJOY, POSTMASTER GENERAL: The Postal Service will do its job to deliver its -- to deliver the ballots, OK? And when we -- when the president goes into that the Postal Service doesn't -- is not equipped to do it, which -- he's incorrect with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, voting is already under way in dozens of states. And right now, the Trump campaign and Republican officials at the state and local level are actively engaged in efforts to make it harder for voters to cast a ballot, particularly by mail.
And President Trump is once again casting doubt on whether he'll accept the results of the election and agree to a pillar of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the election results only legitimate if you win?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So we have to be very careful with the ballots. The ballots, that's a whole big scam. We want to make sure the election is honest, and I'm not sure that it can be -- I don't know that it can be, with this whole situation. Unsolicited ballots, they're unsolicited, millions being sent to everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: I want to be clear here, the president's claims about unsolicited ballots are not accurate.
I am joined now by retired Rear Admiral Michael Smith. He is now the executive director of National Security Leaders for Biden. Sir, thank you so much for being with us. Can you tell us what your response is to President Trump's comments?
MICHAEL SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY LEADERS FOR BIDEN: You know, I think that his comments reflect exactly why my group got together. He just has a disdain for the American Constitution and the principles that all of us swore to uphold and defend. And what you're seeing in the press today is exactly why our group got together.
KEILAR: The Senate on Thursday, unanimously passed a resolution that stated that the chamber's committed to the peaceful transfer of power, which is something that Trump hasn't committed to. Do you think that it is a real possibility that the president makes good on what he's talking about?
SMITH: No, absolutely not. I think that the military, at the end of the day, I have complete confidence in the leadership, the military leadership of our armed forces. I do believe what they should do, what the Joint Chiefs of Staff should do is come out right now and declare that when the election is over, that they will be supporting the rightly elected president-elect of this country, and that -- to assure the American people that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.
KEILAR: I want to ask you about that because I've heard many people in the CivMil space who have worries about the chairman of the Joint Chiefs or the Joint Chiefs saying something like that. They think that it will irreparably politicize the military in a way that actually weakens American democracy further. What do you say to that?
SMITH: How can the military coming forward and just reiterating their purpose, and reiterating that they are there to support the Constitution, that their allegiance is to the Constitution, how does that politicize them?
If anything, that should assure the American people that they will maintain their apolitical nature, which is exactly what they need to do, and exactly why I would call on them to do that, is to make sure everyone knows that even though there may be a political person in charge of our national intelligence, that they get a vote and they can't create fake intel that would justify calling out the National Guard. You know, I think it's actually the responsible action to take.
[14:05:15]
KEILAR: Your group organized nearly 500 national security experts to sign this open letter endorsing Biden, which is quite a show of force. Tell us what the message is.
SMITH: The message is that enough is enough. You know, all of us that signed this letter -- and this is Republicans, this is independents, this is Democrats. These are people, some of whom have never been involved in politics, but they just are deeply concerned about the president's actions.
And they're -- all of us agree there is only one way to restore American leadership in the world and integrity in the Oval Office, and that's by voting in Joe Biden in November. He has the experience, he has the empathy, he has the integrity.
You know, Joe Biden is not going to go out there and treat our allies the way that Trump has. His principles are such that a nation's word is its bond. And he's certainly not going to lie to the American people over and over again, that's what this letter is about.
It's not an anti-Trump letter, it's a letter to every undecided voter that there's only one answer in November, it has to be Joe Biden.
KEILAR: Admiral Mike Smith, thank you for joining us.
SMITH: Thank you, Brianna.
KEILAR: President Trump's social media feeds and those of his allies have been repeatedly flagged for spreading misinformation and manipulated videos about the election and Joe Biden.
The president's campaign claims that these doctored videos are just humor, that they're funny. But CNN's Donie O'Sullivan found that oftentimes Trump supporters are not in on the joke.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: So we've come to a Trump rally in Bemidji, Minnesota today to ask Trump supporters what they see when they open their Facebook feeds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one has been more wrong more often than Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The November 3rd election result may never be accurately determined --
O'SULLIVAN: On that post, is there any label or fact check or anything?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, they have a little thing at the bottom that says voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the U.S.
(LAUGHTER)
O'SULLIVAN: Are you a Facebook user?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I use Facebook, yes.
O'SULLIVAN: What sort of pages do you follow on there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody that agrees with me.
O'SULLIVAN: Only people that agree with you?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
O'SULLIVAN: You don't want to hear --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That'd be a Republican and anti-abortion guy and pro-gun and pro-beer.
O'SULLIVAN: But do you not think it would be good to follow some pages of people you disagree with, see their opinion maybe?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, because they call me stupid, ignorant, you know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would I follow people that throw rocks at me constantly because they don't agree with me? I got tens of thousands of people that do.
O'SULLIVAN: So Trump, his campaign, a lot of senior Republicans over the past few weeks have been sharing doctored and manipulated videos on social media. Now, the Trump campaign and Trump supporters will often say these videos are clearly jokes. They are memes, people know they're memes, people know they're fake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they say -- well, this is fact-checked? It's wrong because it's taken out of context. Like when Joe Biden fell asleep during a live interview on television.
O'SULLIVAN: Claimed that he fell asleep, I think that was an edited one, right? That was --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't think it was -- looked pretty live to me, there was no cuts in it.
LEYLA SANTIAGO, NEWS ANCHOR: Joining us live this morning from New York. Hey, good morning. Wake up. Wake up, wake up. OK.
(LAUGHTER)
SANTIAGO: This is your wake-up call, Harry.
O'SULLIVAN: Is this the video that you're talking about?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could b, yes.
O'SULLIVAN: Biden falling --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should I watch it really quick?
O'SULLIVAN: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is "The Washington Post."
(LAUGHTER)
O'SULLIVAN: So an article there is saying that it was faked, but it looked real, right? I mean, it looked real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean, I definitely wouldn't doubt that it would happen.
O'SULLIVAN: Even if it is fake, does it change your opinion of Biden?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, no. You've got to sift through it. I missed that one, but it was a good laugh, it was a really good laugh. And like I said, I wouldn't doubt it.
O'SULLIVAN: A lot of people we spoke to today are sharing posts on Facebook that later get fact-checked by Facebook's third-party fact- checkers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anything I put on there about our president is generally only on for a few minutes. And then all of a sudden, they're fact-checking me, saying this, that and the other thing, which I know is not true. Their fact-checker's wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They'll right away go to the conservatives sites, say that's wrong, then they pull it. And they're not going to the liberal sites, and them are the real lies, they're the real liars out there.
[14:10:09]
O'SULLIVAN: Also circulating online, more insidious forms of misinformation including baseless claims about Vice President Joe Biden being a pedophile. Do you guys seriously think that Joe Biden's a pedophile?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. But that's just my opinion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel he is, I feel he's part of the game of the whole thing.
O'SULLIVAN: That baseless, fabricated claim about Biden is circulating among supporters of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that the FBI says is a potential domestic terrorism threat. Some of these false claims have been amplified by the president himself.
The FBI is saying QAnon is a dangerous conspiracy theory. Does that make you think for a second, hand on, should I be following this thing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, because they're -- QAnon's bringing up the bad things about the FBI, that's why they're saying it, that's why they're afraid of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: I want to thank Donie for that very good reporting.
We do have some breaking news on the pandemic. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has just announced that he's lifting all COVID restrictions on bars and restaurants. I want to bring in Randi Kaye to talk about this.
Tell us what you've learned, Randi.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really something. It came as a surprise to us -- certainly many of here in the media and many around the state. What we know is that he's lifting all of those restrictions on all businesses statewide immediately. That includes bars and restaurants, they will now be open to 100 percent capacity. They've been open to 50 percent capacity until now.
And if you look at the area here behind me, there's an outdoor table there and a big "Now Open" sign. That's where people used to have to sit. Now, everybody is welcome to go inside. They no longer have to make room for people outside.
Also, one other thing, masks, they are now -- he is now saying that you no longer have to wear a mask. He is overriding the local county, city orders that you have to wear a mask in public here in Miami-Dade, where we are in Miami-Dade County, the hardest-hit county in the state of Florida. Normally in public, I would have to be wearing this or risk getting a fine. Now, the governor says you can no longer fine people for not doing that, for not wearing these masks.
Why is he doing this when we are still seeing cases every single day, deaths every single day? He explained that earlier, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. RON DESANTIS (D-FL): You have some people say, well, you can never do, you know, full -- what you want to do until there's a vaccine. Well, we don't know -- hopefully. But now people are saying, hey, even if there's a vaccine, it's still going to take another year before you can operate appropriately. And you know, I don't think that's viable, I don't think that that is acceptable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: And Brianna, if it does get bad here, do not expect the state to close. The governor also is saying that the state is prepared for an increase in infections if that's what we see, so we are not closing anything here he says, moving forward.
And just in terms of the numbers, we have about 700,000 people infected here in the state of Florida, about 14,000 deaths. So certainly there are going to be a lot of questions about why the governor is making this decision. We've been opening slowly here, the theme parks have opened, the restaurants and bars have opened to a lesser capacity than 100 percent. But certainly the governor, looking to make a move and looking to send a message that Florida is indeed open. Back to you.
KEILAR: Yes, opening and no masks. It's like jumping out of an airplane but leaving the parachute behind, Randi, it's really stunning.
KAYE: Bingo.
KEILAR: All right, such an important report. Randi Kaye, thank you so much, in Florida for us.
Next, we have some new details about the coronavirus vaccine trial that has been on hold now for two weeks.
Also, New York's governor announces that he's forming his own task force to study any vaccine the Trump administration approves.
[14:13:52]
And Brianna Taylor's family, speaking out about how they say the system failed her as new protests are planned for this weekend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: The president has suggested that he may override the FDA's approval process on a vaccine timeline. And in a sign of just how much public trust in a vaccine has eroded, the state of New York, once the epicenter of the U.S. pandemic, is now making an unprecedented move to double-check the federal government's work. CNN's Alexandra Field explains -- Alexandra
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state of New York will form its very own vaccine task force comprised of scientists, researchers and public health experts. He says the federal government's response to COVID has raised serious questions about the politicization of the vaccine development and approval process. He says he wouldn't trust the opinion of the federal government, and that he wouldn't recommend New Yorkers do it either.
So the task force being formed in New York will be charged with reviewing any vaccine that is approved by the federal government -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Thank you, Alexandra.
There are plenty of questions for a vaccine trial that was forced to halt its work. AstraZeneca was asked to stop its trial roughly two weeks ago after one of its volunteers developed some kind of neurological issue. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been digging into why this trial still has not been able to continue. Tell us what you've learned, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we've been looking at documents from AstraZeneca and also from its partner in the trials, the University of Oxford in England. Now, what we found is that there are various reports of this illness and also another illness that caused a pause back in July.
When we shared this with experts, they said, wow, there seem to be inconsistencies here, what is the actual truth? Let's take a look at what some of those reports found.
[14:20:06]
So for the first pause, the one that happened in July, there's a document that says that that person developed symptoms of transverse myelitis, which is a rare neurological condition in which the spinal cord in inflamed.
But then on August 5th, there's a report that a participant was diagnosed with an unrelated neurological illness. So then on September 9th, it was multiple sclerosis. So it's unclear exactly what's going on here.
Now let's look at the September pause, the one that we are still in after more than two weeks here in the United States. On September 10th, a participant experienced confirmed myelitis according to one document. And then on September 11th, it says that this participant developed unexplained neurological symptoms. Well, which is it? Transverse myelitis is not unexplained, so which is it, what is going on here?
The experts that we talked to -- these are folks who have been involved in clinical trials for decades -- say the details matter here because what regulators in the U.S. have to do is figure out, is -- do these two illnesses have something in common or are they just sort of separate random one-offs? If they're similar, if they have something in common, that sort of leans more to the side that perhaps there's a link to the vaccine -- Brianna.
KEILAR: And there's some more news from Florida, Elizabeth. The governor is saying that he expects to host a full Super Bowl in February in Tampa. And this is a stadium that seats 70,000 people. What do you think?
COHEN: That's a lot of people in one place. And also, that's a lot of time between now and February. I mean, I think something I would think that we all would have learned by now is that we should not be talking about what we think we're going to do four or five months from now. That is a long time out in the future in sort of, you know, corona- time. A lot can happen. And who knows if that's a good idea or not?
It's unclear why he's making sort of these sort of future kind of statements. Why wouldn't he say, you know, let's think about this, this is months away, who knows what the situation will be, my state has been through a very difficult time this summer, they had a terrible time with coronavirus in Florida. It is unclear why he would want to put -- or commit to having 70,000 people in one place.
KEILAR: It is. All right, Elizabeth, thank you so much for that.
And still ahead, a United Airlines executive joins me to talk about their decision to start COVID testing before some flights.
Plus, LeBron James, sharing some poignant words on why he's speaking out about Breonna Taylor and protecting black women in general.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: We are hearing from the mother of Breonna Taylor for the first time since we learned a grand jury did not indict any of the officers involved in the case directly with her daughter's killing.
Amid chants of "Say her name" and "Release the transcripts," Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, was too distraught to speak. So Taylor's aunt read Palmer's public statement while wearing her niece's EMT jacket.
Palmer said she never had faith in Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to begin with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIANCA AUSTIN, BREONNA TAYLOR'S AUNT: I was reassured Wednesday of why I have no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the law that are not made to protect us black and brown people. But when I speak on it, I'm considered an angry black woman.
But know this, I am an angry black woman. I am not angry for the reasons that you would like me to be --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
AUSTIN: I'm sorry. But angry because our black women keep dying at the hands of police officers. And black men. OK, angry because our children are dying at the hands of police officers. And I'm angry because this nation is learning that our black women dying at the hands of police officers -- and this is not OK.
You can take the dog out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of the dog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say it again.
AUSTIN: For a lack of better terms, bark, bark for being the dog, still standing to fight.
I knew Cameron would never do his job, but what I do know is that him and countless others will go to bed, sleeping with Breonna's face, still hearing her say her name. You didn't just rob me and my family, you robbed the world of a queen, a queen willing to do a job that most of us could never stomach to do, a queen willing to build up anyone around her, a queen who was starting to pave her path.
I hope you never have to know the pain of knowing your child is in need and help, and you're not able to give (ph) them. I hope you never hear the sounds of hearing someone cry and beg for your child to get help, and she never receives help. Those cries was ignored.
I hope you never know the pain of your child being murdered, 191 days in a row.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Protests continued last night in Louisville, and a citywide curfew remains in effect through the weekend.
L.A. Laker LeBron James' comments on and off the court about the Breonna Taylor case are resonating with fans and social justice advocates.
After the grand jury's decision, James tweeted a quote made famous by the late Civil Rights icon Malcolm X. Quote, "The most disrespected person in America is the black woman."
TEXT: LeBron James: The most DISRESPECTED person on earth is THE BLACK WOMAN! I promise you I'll do my best to change this as much as I can and even more!! LOVE to you QUEENS all over this country and beyond!
[14:30:05]
After last night's win, James was asked to expand on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
